Death Penalty for Rapists - Is it Warranted?

Death Penalty for Rapists - Is it Warranted?

There has been a national outrage (well, at least on all the TV channels that I was watching) about the gang-rape of a 23 year old woman in a moving bus in Delhi.

At the outset, let me make things abundantly clear that the culprits must be immediately brought to book, tried, and punished in accordance with the prevailing laws. (Today's laws can result in a jail term ranging from 7 years to a maximum of life imprisonment.)

Further to this horrific rape, a whole lot of people have demanded that the laws should be amended to enable the "Death Penalty" for rapists.

Personally, despite being a rather unsavoury punishment, in the Indian context, I'm still in favour of continuing to retain the "Death Penalty" as an option for the "rarest of rare cases". In this post, I will not go into the details of my reasons, which I can elaborate at a later point of time. In this post, I will restrict my arguments to proffer reasons as to why "Death Penalty" should not be allowed to be imposed on Rapists. Here goes:

• Rape, as a crime, while being a horrendous one, already punishes the victim in the existing process of law where the victim is repeatedly questioned at length during the court hearings. If this is the situation presently, you can imagine the rigour of such questioning in case the law allows imposition of the "Death Penalty".
  
  
• As it is, the conviction rate is pathetic for crimes of rape. If you desire to impose "Death Penalty", the judges (and the accused persons & their lawyers) would expect a greater degree of "proof and certainty" - This would further reduce the conviction rates.
  
  
• A vast majority of cases of rape are, even according to the experts on human rights, acts of a perverted mind. The moment you concede that rape is the result of a perverted mind, there is always the scope to "reform" the perverted mind. If you impose the "Death Penalty", you are condemning the rapist to a punishment that eliminates the possibility to reform himself.
  
  
• Unlike most other crimes, rape is "difficult to prove", with "your word versus mine" situations being quite common. In fact, in many instances, the rape victim is often so terrified by her experience that immediately after the crime, she rushes home and (sorry to say this openly) cleans herself up completely and thoroughly, because she feels so deeply violated - both physically and emotionally. Unfortunately, in this very process of cleaning up, she often ends up destroying a whole lot of "evidence". Sad, blunt, but true. This again results in the problem of depending on "circumstantial evidence" to prove the crime. "Death Penalty" is seldom likely to be imposed based on such "circumstantial evidence"
  
  
• The situation becomes far more confusing when you have a situation of rape by one (or more) stranger(s) in a dark alley, for instance. Proving guilt or innocence becomes all the more challenging. With advanced forensic technology and with a willingness on the part of a victim to lodge a complaint with the law enforcement agencies immediately after the crime, it may be feasible to nail the real culprits. However, I don't see that happening in today's India.
  
  
• Now we need to look at the microscopic minority of cases where there is a FALSE accusation of rape. This could happen in a variety of instances ranging from a vengeful woman, a "ditched" lover, a commercial sex worker who did not get the money, etc. In such cases where the real criminal is the so-called victim, it would be quite feasible for her to "create the required evidence" to nail the "culprit" who is actually innocent. I repeat, in today's India, over 95% of the rapes will be horrible crimes against women. However, when you have over 24000 cases of rapes being reported every year, even the remaining 5% translates to a sizable number. And even if ONE innocent person is going to be punished, I'll much rather prefer if he is made to suffer a jail term rather than a "Death Penalty". For obvious reasons.
  
  
• Finally, when you take a few years to actually execute a clearly "open and shut case" like Kasab, you can well imagine the kind of time that you are going to take to achieve "closure" of rape cases if "Death Penalty" is allowed. All said and done, in cases where we are talking about a jail term, by the time the cases reach the high court, the "period of imprisonment undergone" might have exceeded the intended jail term, and people may not necessarily drag on the cases all the way to the Supreme Court. However, if we are contemplating "Death Penalty", you can be rest assured that each such case where the accused is convicted, he will go all the way to the Supreme Court to escape the "Death Penalty". In fact, it may not even end there - There is always a "request for Presidential Pardon" - And the possibility of further litigation on the grounds that the accused has already "mentally suffered" due to the "inordinate delays" in the decision making process.

Keeping in mind all the above points, I am sure that "Death Penalty" is certainly not appropriate for rapists. Much better for all parties concerned will be to hasten the investigation and trial process and ensure that final closure is obtained within a maximum of a few months from the original date of complaint.

Regards,

N